Raise Your Game With Alan Stein Jr. 

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TSP Alan Stein Jr. | Raise Your Game

 

The world tends only to see the wins and glorious moments in life. Many overlook the fact that behind all the success is the amount of work behind it, the blood, sweat, and tears shed leading towards that moment. In this episode, John Livesay is joined by the author of Raise Your Game, Alan Stein Jr. to share with us why we should not let outcomes determine our behavior and how the unseen hours we put in when no one’s looking determines our success. Having worked with amazing athletes, including Kobe Bryant, he then tells us some of the lessons he learned from the basketball court to the business world, such as preparing to do sales, focusing on being great where we are, and the difference between motivation and discipline. At the end of the day, success is not about the outcome but the preparation put into it. Join Alan in this conversation to find great nuggets of wisdom that will have you rethink the way you see success.

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Raise Your Game With Alan Stein Jr.

Our guest is Alan Stein Jr., the author of Raise Your Game. He’s worked with amazing athletes, including Kobe Bryant. He shares the lessons he learned from the basketball court to the business world, including don’t let outcomes determine your behavior, how the unseen hours that you put in when no one’s looking determines your success. His big advice about being a star right where you are, and how that led him to incredible success. Enjoy the episode.

Our guest is Alan Stein Jr. He teaches proven strategies to improve organizational performance, create effective leadership, increased team cohesion and collaboration, and develop winning mindsets, rituals and routines. He’s a successful business owner and a veteran basketball performance coach. He spent fifteen years working with the highest performing athletes on the planet, including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant. In his corporate keynote talks and workshops, he reveals how to utilize the same approach in business that elite athletes use to perform at world-class level. He delivers practical lessons that can be implemented immediately. His clients have included everything from American Express, Pepsi, Starbucks, Penn State Football, and many more. The strategies from his book, Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best are implemented by corporate teams and sports teams around the world. Alan, welcome to the show.

I’m excited to be here. Thank you so much, John.

I’ve been a big fan of your work and your passion. I got to hear you speak at a virtual meeting. I thought I’m going to reach out because you and I love this passion for getting people to stretch themselves a little bit beyond who they are or what they think they can do. Let’s take it back a little bit to your own story of origin. You can go back to the first time you ever shot a basketball to wherever you want to start the story. Before you became such an expert in all of this and working with these athletes, what is your own little story?

[bctt tweet=”Don’t let outcomes determine your behavior.” username=”John_Livesay”]

The point of origin that is applicable is that basketball was my first love. It was my first identifiable passion. I fell in love with the game at 4 or 5 years old, several decades later, basketball is still a major pillar in my life. For that, I’m thankful that I’ve been able to build a life and make a living built around something that I enjoy and have a passion for. That stems from arguably the best piece of advice I ever received when I was young, which is find what you love, find what you’re good at, and then find where those two things intersect. For me, that’s always been around the game of basketball. Even now that I left the direct training space and do mostly corporate keynote speaking and workshops, it’s still centered on all of the themes, lessons, principles and strategies that I learned through the game. Most of the stories that I tell on stage or to a webcam are rooted in my basketball experience. Basketball is still a foundational pillar in my life.

For frame of reference, because everyone is always curious, how tall are you?

I’m 6’1”, which according to the average height of males in America puts me a little bit on the taller side, but it’s funny because I looked like an absolute shrimp in some of the pictures that I have because I’m usually standing next to someone that’s 6’8”, 6’9”, 7 feet tall. Even when I worked at the high school level, even though they were 15- and 16-year-old kids, many of them were 6’8”, 6’9”, 7 feet tall. When you see a team picture, it makes it look like I’m 5’4”.

TSP Alan Stein Jr. | Raise Your Game

Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best

If you’re built a certain way in basketball heights, I remember in gym class in high school, the guy goes, “You got muscular legs.” I go, “I’m a competitive swimmer.” He goes, “You should be on the football team with those legs.” I had the opportunity to meet Michael Phelps and everyone was like, “He’s a successful swimmer because he’s got a big lung capacity.” There’s so much more to that success in any career, whether it’s an athlete or a salesperson or whatever you’re doing, than just your physicality. I wanted to start there. Did you have anybody encourage you or discouraging you like, “I don’t know if you’re tall enough?” What was it about basketball versus other sports that you go, “This is for me?”

I was always on the taller end of kids in my class. I’m not freakishly tall, 6’1” is a hair above average. It’s not like I’m 6’10”. My main attraction to basketball funny enough was, and this is a little-known fact that most people don’t know about me, is I’m heavily introverted. I love solitude. I love alone individual time. That’s how I recharge my battery. That was what unconsciously attracted me to the game of basketball because it’s one of the only team sports that you can practice by yourself and still improve the major skillsets. As long as you have a ball in a hoop, you can work on your ball handling, you can work on your shooting. Whereas when you think of soccer or baseball or football, you need someone else there with you to throw the ball and to catch or to tackle or to do whatever it is that you’re going to do. It’s harder to improve those sports in solitude. I love that I could take a few hours on a Saturday, go down to the park, work on my game by myself in complete silence.

Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we have a little boom box with some hip-hop music playing. I could go with my team and be around others and contribute to the greater good. That was one of the early attractions. I have seen in my time since the pressure that people put on young people when they’re tall at an early age. They make the assumption, “You should be playing basketball, or you should be playing volleyball because you’re tall.” They don’t quite get that. I understand that’s helpful, but they have to have a passion for it, for this to come to fruition.

[bctt tweet=”Emotions inform not direct your life.” username=”John_Livesay”]

I love that inside story of your introversion allows you to be by yourself to recharge and still be part of a team and toggle back and forth. That’s why basketball resonated with you. That’s nothing to do with your height, which is I happily found that insight for people. A lot of people think, “Why did you pick that or why does that resonate with you?” Let’s talk about your book, Raise Your Game. You’ve got some secrets in here. How did you come up with the title? That’s always a fascinating question for me, because as a fellow author, I know it’s not the first thing that comes to top of mind. There are many things that are considered.

Before we do that, I want to take one quick step back and say that my introversion is also what drew me to keynote speaking. I get to spend so much time by myself rehearsing, writing, and working on my craft. People often make the mistake of thinking if you’re introverted, you’re not social, that you don’t like people, that you don’t like large groups. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love being on stage and I love being around people, but that’s what drains my battery. It’s solitude that allows me to recharge. That’s the definition of introversion versus extroversion.

Extroverts get their energy from other human beings. Whereas for me, when I do a 60-minute keynote onstage and then mingle with some folks after, I can’t wait to get back to my hotel room and be in full solitude because I am emotionally exhausted at that point. I’ve been able to embrace my introversion and know that if I can put in the individual time to fill my bucket, then I can be of more value and of more service when I step on stage. I took that same mindset that drew me to basketball. That’s one of the key things that drew me to keynote speaking as well.

TSP Alan Stein Jr. | Raise Your Game

Raise Your Game: If you do have tendencies of being introverted, that in no way, shape or form should limit your potential as a sales professional.

 

That’s helpful because a lot of our readers are entrepreneurs. That’s a lonely job. I don’t think people, unless you’ve done it, realize that speaking can be a lonely job. The joke is we speak for free. They pay us to travel. If you’re a salesperson like I was, you’re on the road, you’re in a hotel room, people don’t realize it. If you are recharged by being around your friends and family, and you’re on the road in a strange hotel in a strange city, then that drains you. If you’re someone like you, it recharges you. The things that are hard for people who are extroverts, being on the road, alone in an airport, and all that isolation of not having one to talk to, it drains them. For you, it recharges you. It’s the same thing with sales. It’s like, “You got to be outgoing to be in sales.” Maybe or maybe not. It depends on how you can frame it.

If you are naturally extroverted, you will gravitate to something like sales because you make that connection of, “Nothing would make me happier than meeting with eight clients or prospects a day and talking.” While that may be true, that doesn’t mean that if you’re naturally introverted, that you should have an aversion to sales. You can still be an incredible sales professional if you’re introverted. You have to know your lane. You have to know that, “I’ve got a sales call today at 4:00, or I’ve got a presentation this evening.” I need to be in solitude to prepare for those two events so that I can bring my best and that I can show up as my best self. For the readers, if you do have tendencies of being introverted, that in no way, shape or form should limit your potential as a sales professional.

Also, as an entrepreneur. Bill Gates and Zuckerberg are quite introverted person. They’ve figured out ways to deal with that and make that work for them. You’ve said something that stands out to me, which is the need for preparation. We know athletes do it, Broadway performers do it, movie stars don’t get in front of the camera without rehearsing. Yet I see many sales professionals that are like, “I’m just going to wing it.” Whether they’re pitching for funding or pitching to win a new client, this resistance to practicing is the same personality that doesn’t like to stop and ask for directions before GPS. What is that do you think that causes people to realize, “All these people need to practice, but I don’t?”

[bctt tweet=”Don’t play the comparison game.” username=”John_Livesay”]

In any work that I’ve done with sales organizations, that’s one of the chief recommendations I make. You need to develop some type of system for practice. Whether you want to call it rehearsal, role-playing, whatever you need to do, you need to get into reps. It is interesting that we make that assumption with sports. We make an assumption when we’re watching a movie. None of us think that when we’re watching a movie that the first time Al Pacino or Meryl Streep is saying those lines is when the camera is on. Of course not. They said those things hundreds of times in preparation so that when the lights go on, they can nail it. Sales professionals should be doing something of the same effect.

One of the concepts in the book is we talk about the unseen hours. It’s the hours that you put in when no one is watching. A basketball player is made during the unseen hours. Us as novice fans, we get to enjoy their greatness when the lights come on, and the cheerleaders start dancing, but their game was built in an empty gym, working on their game by themselves. It’s the same thing with sales professionals. If you can start to look at that sales call you have or that presentation you have, if you can look at that as your game, or you can look at that as showtime on Broadway, then you’ll do what you need to do to prepare and to anticipate, “What am I going to need to be able to do during that sales call? What are some of the potential objections they may have or excuses they may make? What are the most insightful questions that I can ask them to get to know them, and qualify them as a legitimate prospect, and make sure that what I’m selling is the right fit for them.” That’s another important key.

A lot of sales professionals want to lead with their features and their benefits and what makes them unique. That stuff is important. However, it’s way more important to show the customer or the prospect or the client, how much you care about them and how invested you are in what will solve their problem. You’re not worried about selling them anything. You’re worried about making sure that you understand what it is that they need. If what they need is what you sell, then the sale will take care of itself. You don’t have to force it. You don’t have to manipulate. You certainly don’t have to convince anyone. You simply have to make sure that they can see the alignment between what they need and what you have. Once you get to that point, then you can share some features and some benefits and your unique selling proposition. It’s way more important to go into it with asking insightful questions and getting to know them.

TSP Alan Stein Jr. | Raise Your Game

Raise Your Game: With sales professionals, if you get too hung up on the outcome and the sale, it’s going to erode your preparation and your mindset.

 

This concept of the unseen hours, even as a speaker, sometimes people come up to you and go, “You’re a natural.” I smile like you did because nobody wants to hear about the work, unless they’re a speaker and then you’re having a conversation about the draft. People want to think that you can do that because you’re a “natural.” They don’t realize how much time you’ve spent crafting that TEDx Talk or whatever it is, let alone the keynote.

There’s no question that a certain level of charisma might be innate. You and I may have been born with certain personality traits that make it more conducive for us to be speakers and to be on. I say this respectfully and politely because people say the same thing. It’s almost insulting when someone says, “You’re a natural.” I do appreciate the intended compliment, but there’s a lot of work that goes into this. Ray Allen is one of the all-time best shooters in the history of the NBA. He’s still the leader in three pointers made.

He used to say the same thing because people would tell him, “You are such a natural shooter.” He said, “Natural shooter? Do you have any idea how many baskets I’ve made in the unseen hours in a dark gym by myself? This is not natural.” He would acknowledge. Maybe he was blessed with above average hand-eye coordination or spatial awareness. He was on the taller end. He was around 6’6”. He wasn’t discounting that he had some advantages, but at the end of the day, the reason he’s one of the best shooters ever to play the game is because he put in the work and he honored preparation.

[bctt tweet=”Find what you love, find what you’re good at, and then find where those two things intersect.” username=”John_Livesay”]

It’s the same thing for speakers. Could guys like us get away with not preparing? We might be able to do okay if we go up there and wing it, but we won’t come anywhere close to being as impactful and as influential as we’re capable of if we do prepare. This is why you can’t play the comparison game in speaking or in sales. If you’re comparing yourself to others and you’re using that as your yardstick, you’re going to fall short. My only comparison is, “Did I do as well as I’m capable of? Did I turn over every stone in preparation to make sure that I could deliver a customized message for this client? Did I bring my A-game and show up as my best self?”

If the answer to that at the end of the day is yes, then I know that I honored that client, respected that client, and did the best that I was capable of. The hardest part about that is learning to detach yourself from the feedback. There have been times where I felt like I killed it on stage and got good feedback, but they weren’t rave reviews. There have been other times where I got off stage and thought like, “Today wasn’t my best day. I was a little off my game.” I get some of the best feedback that I’ve ever gotten. It’s so important to keep all of these things in perspective and have some balance with them.

A lot of people secretly suffer and struggle with the imposter syndrome sometimes. A lot of that comes from comparing ourselves. We say, “Why am I not more successful by this age or by this stage of my career?” The first time I learned this was when I was in high school competitively swimming. They lined us up in heats. There’s always this guy that was faster than I was. They measure your time to the thousands of a second when you touched the wall. They said, “You won.” I said, “How did that happen?” They go, “He turned his head when he took a breath to see if he was ahead or not, and you stayed focused on the wall.” That was my first life lesson of, “When I focused on my own progress, I win.” When I was in the world of fashion, luxury entertainment magazines like, “Vanity Fair and Style are having an Oscar party. What should we do?” I was like, “Not that.” When you watch the Tiger Woods documentary, all that pressure and the crowd cheering, when you’re in basketball, you have that and so much at stake. It’s the same thing with salespeople when they’ve got the big sale coming up. I’m sure you’ve trained some of these athletes on how to be focused and turn off the noise.

TSP Alan Stein Jr. | Raise Your Game

Raise Your Game: Discipline is so much more important than motivation because discipline will get you through times when you’re not feeling motivated.

 

We can use swimming as a perfect example when we play the comparison game. If we compare you to me in swimming, you come out on top by a fast margin. I don’t even know anything about you, but I know I’m not a great swimmer. However, if we compare you to Michael Phelps, he’ll more than likely come out on top. It’s all a frame of reference. Yet, in both instances, you are the exact same swimmer. Nothing changed other than who we compared you to. It’s same thing with going out to eat. Some people will say that the Outback is expensive and other people say, “No, Ruth’s Chris is expensive.” It doesn’t change how much either one of them are charging, all it changes is what you decide to compare it to.

One of the hardest parts, especially in sales, because sales is numbers driven. Most sales professionals have sales goals and they have quotas. They’re earning a commission on sales, but when you can learn to detach from the outcome and learn to love the work, the process, and the preparation, that’s when you take that next step to being an incredible sales professional. If we use basketball as an example, there have been times I’ve been part of a team that did not play well and still won the game. There have been times where the team played the best they were capable of and they still lost the game. It’s the same thing with swimming. All you needed to worry about was, did you swim the best race you were capable of? It doesn’t matter whether the guy next to you beat you or you beat him, all that matters is that you did your best.

With sales professionals, if you get too hung up on the outcome and the sale, it’s going to erode your preparation and your mindset. You need to love the work because there will be times where you don’t get the sale, but you did everything right. You prepared. You were thorough. You brought your best self and they simply didn’t think it was a good fit. There will be other times where you nail it in, and somebody gives you the biggest check you’ve seen all year. You can’t let outcomes dictate your behavior. You need to be process focused, preparation focused, and aim to perform at your best. If you perform at your best consistently, I’m a believer that those things will take care of themselves.

I’m not saying that getting the sale isn’t an important because it is important, but that can’t be the focal point. It’s the same thing in basketball. Winning is important, but if you focus on winning every possession and you focus on taking great shots and playing great defense, the wins will take care of themselves. When you put your head down, your goggles in the water, and you swim your best race, chances are winning takes care of itself. It’s the same thing with sales, do all of the things that you’re supposed to do, and the sale will naturally be a by-product of that. We don’t focus on the sale. We focus on the preparation and the process. The end result more times than not will be the sale.

[bctt tweet=”Be a star where you are, no matter what level. Be great where you are, be great where your feet are planted.” username=”John_Livesay”]

I love what you said, “Don’t let outcomes determine your behavior.” I talk about it in terms of get off the self-esteem rollercoaster. You only feel good about yourself if your numbers are up and bad about yourself if your numbers are down. You can go up and down that multiple times in a day even. Our identity is bigger than anyone’s outcome. When we get that in not just an intellectual level, but a gut level, then we certainly don’t say, “I missed that shot. Therefore, I’m a bad basketball player.” Kobe doesn’t think like that.

Where this is so important is we don’t control outcomes, but we have much more control over the process, the preparation, our attitude, and our efforts. Most of this comes back to the happiness and fulfillment you’ll derive by taking control. I don’t want to give my power away. You said it so insightfully and perfectly. If my happiness and my self-worth is based upon the decision that someone else makes, that is a slippery slope. I don’t ever want to go down that path. I want to say that I prepared. I showed up as my best self. I did everything that I could, and then whatever happens happens. Either way, I’m going to feel good about the work that I put in. With that being said, I don’t want people to think that I’m a robot and that I’m completely stoic.

These are difficult principles to live by. It’s not easy when you think you’re going to get a speaking engagement and you find out they went with someone else. I’m not pretending that this is easy to do, but this is something we should all be striving for, which is detaching from outcomes and learning to love the work and love the process. Make that your enjoyment. When you can get as much satisfaction out of preparing for a sales call as you do from landing the sale, you own your happiness. No one else can control you. With that said, it reminds me of an important lesson I learned that our emotions are designed to inform us. They’re not designed to direct us. That’s so important when, as you said so perfectly, we can go on this roller coaster of highs and lows.

Some days we can sell anything and some days, we can’t sell anything, but that shouldn’t dictate the way we show up in our behavior. Hopefully, on the heels of a global pandemic where many sales professionals have been challenged, it’s okay if you’re feeling disappointed or pessimistic, or you’re in a low mood. There’s nothing wrong with having those feelings, but you can’t let those feelings dictate the way you behave, the way you prepare, and the way you show up. That’s what being a professional is all about. If you’re frustrated with a prospect, and then you act on that frustration, and you lash out at them, now you’ve got a problem. If you’re frustrated at that prospect, and you find a way to have the emotional regulation and control to still treat them with respect and civility, now you are a professional.

[bctt tweet=”Do the best job you’re capable of where you are. That will open doors and give you new opportunities.” username=”John_Livesay”]

Let’s loop back to how did you come up with the title, Raise Your Game, because we all are playing our own game whether we’re athlete or not. What was it that you said, “That’s the title for me, Raise Your Game?”

You hit it perfectly, almost as if you were reading my mind. I wanted to take something that I knew came from my sports background, which is playing games, but that would resonate with folks in other areas of life, business is a game. I want to raise their parenting game. I want them to raise their game as a spouse or leaders in their community. I wanted to find something that had a sports connotation, but was applicable and would resonate to anyone.

How did you get to, not only become a speaker, but get to work with the Kobe Bryant’s of the world? There are a lot of people who have your background maybe, but you’ve taken it to another level like the triangle on your book. You got one and then they send you referrals or what even made you want to do it or think that you could do it?

This is another lesson that applies directly to sales. I wasn’t always great at this when I was younger, but I’m getting better at it now. The answer to that is be a star where you are. Whatever level you are, even if you’re the lowest ranking sales professional, be great where you are, be great where your feet are planted. Do the best job you’re capable of where you are. That will open doors and give you new opportunities. The reason I say that is I worked at two different high schools here in the Washington DC area. Most of my work has been with high school age players, but I poured into them and did the best job I could as a high school strength coach. That opened the eyes of some people at Nike, the Jordan Brand, and USA Basketball. They gave me invites to come work at their events with Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Steve Nash, and a whole host of players. That started, first and foremost, by focusing on, “Can I make the kids at my high school the best that they’re capable of, and then someone will take notice?”

[bctt tweet=”Folks are always focused on the next step that they don’t give the current step everything they’ve got.” username=”John_Livesay”]

A part of that, and this is an important part too, which also goes to sales, I’ve always been a relationship type guy. I’ve always valued relationships over about everything else. This wasn’t transactional of, “Can I make my high school players run faster and jump higher?” This is, “I truly care about them as human beings. I want to see them successful in life. I care about the coaches on the staff.” If you introduce me to somebody at Nike, I’m going to want to build a relationship with that person and find ways to add value to them, so the relationship, as well as the mindset of star where you are is what opened up the door.

That’s all any of us should be looking for, the opportunities and doors to open. Once you get in, clearly you need to be good at what you do, or they’re going to send you right back out that same door you walked in. Once I was able to work at Kobe Bryant Skills Academy, I’d like to believe I delivered at a high level, which is then what allowed me to work some other events, but that only came from focusing on and embracing the current role that I had instead of always having one foot out the door. I noticed that in a lot of professions, folks are always focused on the next step that they don’t give the current step everything they’ve got.

Whether you’re shooting a basketball or getting ready to do a race, and what I noticed with Michael Phelps, people forget he did not win gold, and yet he was able to let that go and get in the mindset of, “This is what I’m doing now.” Not let that loss of the gold, “I got a silver,” affect him for the next race. That’s what’s so challenging for many salespeople. “I lost a sale. Now I have to pretend like I’m in a good mood.” That resilience is what you’re showing and teaching people. I would be remiss if I let you go without asking the Kobe Bryant story. Talk about not comparing yourself to other people, but I have never had to swim against Michael Phelps or even being in the water with him, just at a party. You have a wonderful story of Kobe and even the timeframe that made me laugh of, “I’m going to get to work out with him.”

Kobe was an anomaly. The way he approached the game, and his now infamous mamba mindset is unlike anybody else that we’ve ever seen in sport. I would always have, and still to this day, have a lot of younger players that reach out to me and say, “I heard Kobe worked out three times a day for 2 or 3 hours at a clip. I want to be great. Should I do that also?” I say, “No, not necessarily.” Kobe had a work capacity and a mindset. I don’t know that we’ve ever seen anybody at that level. The goal is not to try to carbon copy what Kobe did. This would be something I’d tell young players, but it’s so applicable to sales professionals and to speakers. I’ve got a handful of speakers that do a remarkable job. They are some of the best people I’ve ever seen take the stage. I admire them and I respect them, but I’m not trying to copy them and I’m not trying to be them.

[bctt tweet=”Motivation is fleeting. Even the most motivated individuals don’t feel motivated all of the time.” username=”John_Livesay”]

They may have some traits that I’d like to emulate. I might be able to see you on stage, John, and go, “John has such a mastery of his content. He’s so captivating in his delivery that I would love to have a similar mastery of my content. I’d love to be able to deliver my stories with the same type of conviction.” That doesn’t mean that I’m trying to be you or that I’m trying to carbon copy you. It’s so important with anybody that we put up on a pedestal, that we look at some of their traits and try to emulate those traits, and figure out how we can take advantage of similar mindsets, but we don’t try to follow the script or the blueprint of somebody else.

We’ve heard some of these stories with Tom Brady. Tom Brady’s up at 5:00 in the morning watching 2 or 3 hours’ worth of film before the team comes in to practice. Once the team has done practicing, he stays after and watches more film. That doesn’t necessarily mean that if every quarterback did that, they would be as good as Tom Brady. Everybody’s got to find what makes them tick in their own recipe. That goes back to this comparison game. That’s why it’s such a slippery slope. If you think you have to do what everybody else is doing, that might not be what’s best for you.

There are many great takeaways, but the one that’s landing with me is be the star where you are and find your own rhythm, which allows you not to play the comparison game. That’s where the patience comes. Part of discipline is incredible patience of, “Why isn’t this happening faster? Why is it taking so long for my book to get published?” Whatever we can be impatient about. When we get in that zone of, “I’m at the right place at the right time doing the right thing. That’s all I can control. That’s all I have to worry or think about.” The anxiety and the stress level get so much lower and we do our best work. Is there any last thought you want to leave us with?

I’m so glad that you brought up discipline because motivation gets a tad bit overrated in this society. We’re all taught that we need to be these highly motivated people, and that everyone should be waking up at 4:00 in the morning, ready to hit the ground running. Motivation is fleeting. Even the most motivated of individuals don’t feel motivated all of the time. Discipline is so much more important than motivation because discipline will get you through times when you’re not feeling motivated. My goal is to perform at a high level consistently. My goal would be that you have no idea whether or not I was motivated to come on your show or not because it’s irrelevant.

Who cares whether or not I was motivated? All that matters is that I have the discipline and that I show up as my best self because I respect you, and because I respect your audience. I want to deliver as much value as I can. If you happened to schedule a show on a day where I wasn’t feeling motivated and I chose not to bring my best self, how is anyone going to attain any level of success or any type of reputation if that’s the case? Discipline is so important. I didn’t want you to think that I skirted your Kobe Bryant question. Arguably, the most important lesson that I got from watching Kobe workout at 4:00 in the morning during an off season, was that he has a strong appreciation for the fundamentals.

The line that he said to me, which changed my life forever was, “The reason I’m the best player in the world is because I never get bored with the basics.” I’m hoping that you and I collectively added tremendous value to your readers. If they can process that one nugget that “I’m going to focus on the basics and the fundamentals relentlessly during the unseen hours,” then you can become the best sales professional you’re capable of. Each reader needs to ask themselves, “What are my basics as a sales professional?” Preparation is a basic, active listening is a basic. Figure those things out and create a system to practice those things relentlessly, and you’ll become the Kobe Bryant of sales.

Your website is AlanSteinJr.com. The book is Raise Your Game in all areas of your life. Alan, thank you so much for hopping on, showing us how to be the best we can be. I loved all the secrets you shared. What a pleasure.

Thank you so much.

 

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Tags: Basketball Lessons, Business, Preparation, Raise Your Game, Salespeople, Success